1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.
2. Related Art
A printing apparatus is known which performs printing of an image by landing liquid droplets (dots) on a medium by discharging a liquid such as ink from a head section. As the printing apparatus, for example, there is an ink jet printer which discharges photocurable ink (for example, UV ink) which is cured by irradiation of light such as ultraviolet (UV) light. Using such an ink jet printer, a method is widely known where the UV ink dots are fixed onto the medium by curing with light being irradiated onto UV ink dots which have been formed on the medium after the UV ink is discharged to the medium from a nozzle (for example, JP-A-2000-158793).
In the method of JP-A-2000-158793, the generation of bleeding which occurs between the UV ink dots due to the curing of the UV ink dots, which have been discharged on the medium, using light and it is easy to form an image with excellent image quality.
However, in an image which is printed using UV ink by an ink jet printer, there is a problem where there are irregularities in glossiness. It is considered that differences in the amount of ink per unit region which is discharged onto the medium (referred to as duty) are a cause whereby irregularities in glossiness are generated. That is, there is a difference in the glossiness between a portion where the gradation value of the printed image is high and a portion where the gradation value of the printed image is low and the difference in the glossiness becomes irregularities. For example, in a case where an image of a face of a person is printed, the glossiness is low in a portion such as the color of skin where the gradation value is low and the amount of ink is small (low duty). On the contrary, the glossiness is high in a portion such as the pupils where the gradation value is high and the amount of ink is large (high duty). As a result, there are irregularities in glossiness in parts of the face and it is difficult to form an image with excellent image quality.